Welcome to Connecting the Dots with Dan Happel. And today my guest will be Pastor Jesse Boyd. Uh, Jesse was on a mission across the United States with his daughter Bethany. And as good friend, Eric, and they were traveling across the country, carrying crosses and telling people that it's time to understand that the only way we can save our nation from the terrible things that are happening right now is to get on your knees and understand that we can only seek salvation through Jesus Christ.
They traveled clear across the country. They had made it as far as Madison County, Montana, when in fact, they ran into some real difficulty you're going to get a chance to see what that difficulty was, then meet, uh, Reverend Griffin. J Jesse Boyd and hear his story.
the media is on this story missionaries walking across America spreading the gospel attacked and then arrested for self defense. These officers in Montana would love to keep this footage under wraps, but thankfully someone leaked it. And look, they forgot to turn off one of the body cams. So I was in fear for my life.
And you were wrong. I'm just telling you I was in fear for my life. That's okay. I understand that. But you were wrong. Because he doesn't have a weapon. No one can say what he said in a threatening manner. No one can say how aggressive he was. You think a guy's gonna attack you and your child is standing right there?
He's gonna tackle you or something? I mean, I didn't know. You guys all said he came at us in an aggressive fashion. He was in fear for his life. So they all kind of had their story in their head. And they all said that they were in fear for their life. Yeah, that's what dad's on. What? Yeah. Really? Yeah. He said something, and I told him, I don't remember what he said, but he pissed me off, and I And I just kept getting a little closer, because I was going to try and, I don't know what I was going to do.
Then I fucking went and ran him down, I had him tabbed over there, I was beating the shit out the bottom over there. The kid come over, then I grabbed him by the hoodie, I had two of them. So, I went over there, I grabbed him, the kid's hitting me, then we tossed him, you can see all the marks over there in the, in the bar disc.
I had his head, so. Oh, yeah. My wrist is hurting right now. I, I, I jacked him a couple of times. Oh wait.
Okay. He pulled over, this dude rolled up, started yelling and cussing at him. F you off. Okay.
He's like an angel.
Is that was threatening towards his life. Then he, and I, I just kept getting a little closer because I was going to try and, I don't know what I was going to do. And then these guys said specifically I was the fear. That's a fear for my life. And he said something and I told him on him? No. Why would you pull a gun?
I had his head in a skull. I ran him down. I had him javelined over there. I was beating the shit out of him on the bottom over there. Well we got agasol for the weapon. You had agasol for the damage to the fucking dude's face? On every one of these fucking people. Is it bad? Well he's got cuts on his face.
I got punched in the nose. That's what happened. His nose is bleeding the most. That was for the uh, statue itself. Serious vital injuries. Yeah, but you can, you can do assault, right? You can do assault with a weapon. Is that a cut? Yes, he's got that cut above his eye. Um, his nose will bleed. Oh yeah, call an ambulance.
For him? Yeah. Just in case. Well, that was a good idea. It makes your case stronger. It makes your case stronger.
Yeah. We've got to call child protection services for the fucking kid to come here. Goddamn kid. Now, that's dumb. The question is, who's gonna, who's gonna watch the county while we're at home? What? I'll call him. Um. So, bud, here's the deal, okay? So, your dad, your sister, and your dad's two friends, right?
That's who you're with? Okay. They're all gonna go to jail for beating that guy up, okay? Every one of a bitches needs to go to jail. So families will walk across America together, and we're gonna go to jail together. Holy cow. This is Mark Evangelist. Is that what they wrote? Yeah. This was not about an attack, or a gun, or a flagpole.
This is about the cross. It's about the cross. Despite all this leaked body cam footage, these missionaries are still facing felony charges of assault with a weapon in 20 years in prison. It is our job to share their story and to let others know what is happening in Montana to Christians. Please pray for this family and then search out the hashtag Boyd missionary fam for more information on their story.
Wow. What a story, Jesse. Uh, I, we've reported this before. You've been on before, but, uh, this is an important subject to be talking about because when you were walking through there, basically tell your story, how this gentleman, uh, approached you. And, well, and attacked you because he admitted on film that he had attacked you.
Let's go ahead and explain to our listeners exactly how all that happened, where you were at, uh, what time of year and all that, and then kind of explain the story to get at least started. Well, it's pretty simple, Dan. We live in a day and time. Attitudes of hatred toward things relating to Christianity and the cross.
are on the increase. We see it in our government. We see it in national, state, and local governments. We see it in the media. So, it's no surprise that a guy walking across America with a cross these days would at some point elicit some kind of an angry response. Now, that had not been our experience. I never expected when I started walking from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, all the way to the Pacific that it would be safe.
I don't serve the Lord because it's safe. It's not safe to serve the Lord, but we had been blessed. I had walked 5, 543 miles with my 18 year old daughter and Eric Trent, my partner in ministry. We've crossed 17 States and 210 counties. With a cross and an American flag in distress. The visuals of that had created lots of opportunities to speak with people in the highways and byways about the spiritual problem of our nation and to encourage people to humble themselves and return to God that you can't fix this political problem or political division with a political solution.
You have to have a spiritual solution in a nation. That once knew God and has since turned its back upon him. So we had lots of encounters, uh, friendly encounters, an occasional heckler. I had people flip me off from vehicles or yell something out of a car, but mainly harmless. And people do that nowadays in America because Jesus Christ is, uh, is hated.
across the board by evildoers. I mean, we're almost at a point, they talk about legalizing marijuana in this country. We need to legalize Jesus again, because Jesus Christ has become an object of ridicule and scorn. So it's no surprise to me that someone would use the occasion of a cross walking down their road to criticize or scorn missionaries or the Lord Jesus.
People use his name in vain every day. in their conversation in this country. You don't hear people using Muhammad's name in vain, or Buddha, or the gods of men, but they always default to Jesus Christ in their language. And that's, you know, one of the filthiest uses of the English language right there, is to use the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ in vain.
So, these things are not a surprise, and we were often wondering why things had been so calm and peaceful, and there had been such an open door. In these days in which we lived, and we daily thanked God and praised Him for that. And this particular day, we were doing what we always did. We went right back to the spot where we had ceased walking the day before.
Took up the cross and proceeded on our way. It was in November in Montana. We were trying to finish out the week before heading home for Thanksgiving and for the winter, and it was very cold. It didn't get above 18 degrees that day. It was a highway in a remote part of Madison County. There was not much out there.
We did see and interact with a few elk hunters that day. Lots of people in their pickup truck spotting elk. Every Montanan we had spoken to that day, probably seven or eight people, was armed. And, uh, we found folks to be friendly as they typically are. And, uh, this particular afternoon, we simply walked up to the support vehicle.
I was going to trade off with my daughter and her fiancé who was out visiting to help us with the last week. And we were going to do another three miles that day and call it quits. As we were sitting there, parked in a place we had every legal right to be, a public apron on, uh, at the junction of a U. S.
highway and a dirt road, minding our own business, a pickup truck comes up from the north. A man is very angry. He tells us our kind aren't welcome in Montana. I looked at him, I looked at myself, we had the same skin color, so I knew that wasn't a racist statement, and I knew he knew nothing about me, uh, except for the fact that we had a cross and a flag in distress.
And so it became very apparent that he was very angry that we were in his county and in his state and he said we weren't welcome there. He used foul language that I won't repeat here and uh, I told him we were leaving, it wasn't a big deal and uh, that wasn't good enough. In a very angry fashion he got out of his vehicle just like he admits there in that leaked footage.
He was angry and he got out of his vehicle. He said, referring to me, that I said something to him that ticked him off. He couldn't remember what I said. Well, I'll tell you what I said, Dan. Ben's using foul language and threatening me in the presence of my children. I told him that we were leaving, we wanted no trouble, that he needed to go home and wash his filthy mouth out with soap, that there was no reason for him to use such language in front of children.
That's what I said to him. And I'd say it again tomorrow. But he threatened me, got out of his vehicle, said I'll show you, and he tried to charge me and tackle me to the ground. I saw him reach for something in his front seat. I couldn't tell what it was. Every Montana I had interacted with that day was armed with a firearm.
So, I think it was reasonable to conclude that this man had a gun or a knife. And I'm standing beside my 12 year old son, this guy gets out of a vehicle and crosses a space of about 20 feet, uh, coming right for me with a look in his eyes like he was gonna do what he wanted to do, as he admitted there in that footage.
And so, I did what any sensible person would do, I drew a gun on him. I drew a gun on him in complete and total obedience to the letter of Montana law. Montana law says if you are threatened, you or someone else is threatened with bodily harm, that you are allowed to threaten with deadly force including the drawing or presenting of a weapon.
And that's exactly what I did. I stopped him dead in his tracks. I told him we didn't want any trouble. And I was a father with children and that we were moving and we're going to be on our way. At that point, he seemed to calm down a bit as Eric approached and tried to reason with him. And then I did what I thought I should do as a Christian missionary who loves God and loves people.
I tried to reason with him. And looking back, that was a terrible mistake then. I made a terrible mistake. I own it. He seemed to calm down. I reholstered the weapon when the immediate threat was passed. I didn't see a gun in his hand or a knife in his hand. And I took a step of faith, I re holstered the weapon, I handed it to Eric and said, Go put this away.
I didn't want to risk him trying to grab it from me. And so Eric went and put the gun away in the vehicle. And as soon as he did that, this man physically assaulted me. Got up in my face, screaming and hollering, spitting on me. Had me pinned up against the vehicle. I had to sit there and endure that for probably five to seven minutes, Repeatedly communicating that if he would back up out of my face, we would leave.
That we didn't want any trouble. But I warned him that I had children there, and that if he tried to harm us, we would protect ourselves. He told us that he had people with rifles trained on us, that we would be shot in the back if we tried to move. Threat after threat after threat. And, uh, then the man put his hands on me.
And when he put his hands on me, I was forced to fight back. He punched me at least two or three times before I decided to retaliate. And I was down on the snow. He tackled me to the ground. Exactly what he said there. He ran me down and tackled me to the ground and was beating the, or trying to beat the blankety blank out of me.
And at that point, Eric and my daughter and her fiance came to my aid to help pull him off of me. And he did exactly what he said he did in that video. When he got a hold of Eric, who helped get me out from under there, he tried to take him down and put him in the snow. And so we had a crazy maniac that was obviously triggered by the cross, who said we weren't welcome into Montana.
He got angry, and he got out of his vehicle, and we responded with great restraint to protect ourselves. And now I'm being prosecuted in the state of Montana for simply defending myself in a very restrained way. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter drew a sword. The very sword that Jesus told them to take a couple of swords with them.
Peter drew a sword, and then he made a mistake by instantly using it. And then Jesus said, put up your sword. They that take the sword will perish with the sword. Peter went farther than he needed to go that day. It wasn't the drawing of his sword that Jesus rebuked. It was the quickly using it. We drew the weapon.
I drew the weapon. But Dan, because I love Jesus, I don't have a hair trigger? And because, uh, um, um, I was wanting to defuse a threat, I didn't fire the weapon and thank God I wasn't forced to. Now had he tried to attack me or wrestle the gun away from me, I would have fired it. But I used it in response to a force or a threat of bodily harm.
It did its job. And then I made the mistake of putting it away. And that, for whatever reason, he was crazy enough after that. to know we had a gun to attack me physically. And so it was two threats. The first one was, uh, uh, diffused. And then the second one, uh, uh, my colleagues were forced to help extricate me from that situation.
So basically a crazy maniac, a domestic terrorist, the things that are on the rise in this country. A man who bragged about being buddies with the sheriffs. And, uh, it proved to be true. Uh, I reported the incident to 9 1 1. I was cooperative with them. They showed up without even interviewing the attacker.
They arrested us all. They charged us. You saw it. You saw those cops on there mocking us as Christians and Evangelists and laughing about being in fear for our life. Dan, I've got proof that I was in fear for my life that day. My, uh, smartwatch recorded my heartbeat at the very moment that he exited his truck.
And I saw my heart rate spike to a level that it had not been in months. And keep in mind that I'm walking across America, 20 miles a day. We had crossed a mountain range in the snow about a week earlier, uh, after a fresh snowfall where my daughter and I were postholing to our knees. And it took us more than three hours to cover two miles.
Even on that day, my heart rate didn't spike to the level it did at the moment we were attacked on November 12th. So, um, this notion that a man can't be in fear for his life because he's a Christian, or because he's a pastor, or because he's trained, is absolutely ridiculous. One of the greatest boxers that ever lived, one of the most feared, was Mike, Mike Tyson.
And when he stepped into the ring, he could take out world champions in 90 seconds. Mike Tyson himself admitted in a recent interview that he was scared to death every time he entered the ring. And yet these officers mocked us because we spoke of being in fear for our life. I don't know, Dan, if you're on the side of the road minding your own business, and some angry man you've never seen in your life comes up and tells you you're not welcome and then exits a vehicle…
I think you'd be a fool not to be in fear. Mm hmm. Absolutely. Well, uh, Jesse, the man that you're talking about, I don't know him, uh, myself. I'm a former county commissioner in Madison County and I can tell you, I don't know the man that, uh, you're referring to, but by my understanding, he's a fairly recent transplant from California.
And I don't know exactly how Thank you. Um, you know, he can threaten somebody carrying a cross across Montana and say you're not welcome in my state. Uh, obviously it's not his state. It's our state and our state very much welcomes Christian people as far as I'm concerned. So, uh, you know, obviously there was a problem there.
Talk a little bit, if you will, about after you made the call. You made a call to 9 1 1 because you wanted the, the sheriff or local police to show up because you were still, uh, in fear of this man because he was acting like such a, uh, basically a nutcase about everything. Talk a little bit about how… You, uh, called the Sheriff's Department, how you called 9 1 1 and the circumstances after things had kind of settled down enough that you could make that call.
Well, we were able to, I was able to extricate myself from this man who was on top of me on the ground. I was nursing a back injury from the week before where I'd fall on the ice. So, I was vulnerable. Uh, with the help of Eric Trent and my daughter and her fiance, I was able to get out. And then Eric had him subdued and told him that we didn't want any trouble and that if he would, if he was finished, we were finished and we didn't want to hurt him.
And he relaxed and indicated that he was finished, and as soon as Eric let him go, after restraining him, he attacked Eric. And so I had to help pull Eric away from him. And so at this moment, when he was gassed out and stopped fighting, he had a bloody nose. Dan, when he had me down on the ground, pummeling me over and over, I kicked him in the face.
I pulled my knees up to block my face, and I kicked him. I got a good one in, too. from the ground with an icy cold boot. And he got a bloody nose. I've seen worse bloody nose on a playground. I mean, so we used restraint. Uh, but then at that moment when he stopped fighting, two vehicles pulled up. And I saw three individuals.
He made the comment that the cowboys are here now, you're gonna pay. And these three individuals that came from down the dirt road, as soon as they got out of their vehicle, one of them said to me, Get your Jesus blankety blank out of here, or we are going to kill you. Another one of the individuals that the, the uh, sheriffs have listed as an eyewitness said that he would literally run me over with his truck if we didn't get out of here.
There was a third individual there. Uh, they never talked to him, I don't know why. Uh, but these were obviously goons that were friends of this individual. They made it very clear that they would kill us. At that moment, our attacker got on the phone, I had no cell service there, and he dialed 9 1 1 and was trying, was trying to tell them that, that we attacked him.
And so, we got out of there because these individuals threatened to kill us. And um, I mean it would have been stupid to hang around, so I went down the road until I could get a cell signal and immediately reported the incident to 9 1 1. The 9 1 1 calls are out there. I was very clear that we had been attacked by some locals, that our lives had been threatened, that I was forced to pull a gun, that I didn't discharge it, I explained what we were doing, I explained where we were located, and that there were people gathering behind us.
And that I was in fear, I didn't know if we could safely go back that direction, I didn't know where to go, I was far from home, and we were very vulnerable. And I was reporting the incident, and I was very clear that we were willing to cooperate. and answer any questions, and that I would wait for them. I gave them the exact location.
They came up, I thought, in response to my cry for help, and instead they swatted us. They pulled us out of the vehicles, even my 12 year old son, had us get down on our knees in the snow, put our hands on our head, they cuffed us all, separated us, stuck us in vehicles. We sat there for some time before anyone even talked to us.
And then… I can't believe that officer in that footage tried to say that I didn't tell him anything that was threatening. He's a liar. You can listen to me explaining to him what happened on the side of the road. I plainly told that man while I was sitting in handcuffs on the tailgate of his vehicle, freezing my rear end off out there as they made me sit there.
I told them very clearly that this man had gotten out of his vehicle, very angry. I didn't know if he had a gun or a knife. And that he rushed me as if to tackle me right in the presence of my son. I was very clear. So that officer is a liar. Every one of those officers are liars. I don't know if they're from Montana.
I think at least two of them are from out of state. But, uh, these guys were complicit in that hate crime that was done upon us that day. And, um, you know, you can see, you can see the mockery, the sniggling, the snibbling, the laughing. When referring to us as evangelists, what they did to my son was unconscionable.
These are wicked men. that wear a badge there in Madison County, Montana. And that's a threat to every single citizen that lives in that county. Even though there's only seven or eight thousand people, it's dangerous to live in a county where you have thugs with badges like that. And I'm thankful that my county in North Carolina, we don't have men like that wearing badges.
Well, uh, Josie. uh, we want to hear about your son. Uh, we have some footage of that. That isn't the only footage that's out there. There's other, uh, camera footage available, and it's even more indicting of the way that you were treated by the local sheriff's office.
Pastor Jesse Boyd. We are talking about an experience that he had when he was in Montana, uh, how he was literally attacked along the road by someone and how little help he got from the local Sheriff's Department. Uh, we'll get back to that.
I want to, uh, mention too to our viewers and And listeners, we need to support Brightly on TV. It is something that is here to serve the people, to tell the truth. And Mike Adams put this network together with the idea that he was going to have sensor. Free video audio productions. That's why we have the freedom we have.
Go to raytheon store.com and order some of the products that are on the Raytheon store. Uh, it is so important that we support this work and this network, and we can do that with our dollars. Like they shut down by Budweiser and, uh, Target and some of the other places that have been promoting all these bad ideas.
It's time for the people who support this network to stand up and support the good ideas. You can do that by ordering products online through the Brighteon store. So, with that, Jesse, um, we'll get back to you because Your, uh, your daughter, your young daughter, Bethany, uh, her fiance had actually driven out to join you on this walk, bring your son with him.
And that was, he was planning on, uh, he was planning on proposing to your daughter, uh, during this walk. In fact, that very day, maybe talk a little bit about how, uh, that young man came out and was there. So there wasn't three people there. There were five people there, including yourself that witnessed, uh, what was going on, correct?
Yes, sir. Normally we are a team of three. My daughter and I have, and Eric have walked the entire. Distance across America and that particular week, my daughter's fiance, who occasionally takes off from his job at a cotton gin in Missouri to walk with us, wanted to come out and bring my son so that he could propose to her and we could finish out the leg and travel home together.
So those two had arrived in Montana the day before. And so we were all out. They were joining us this particular day. And Carter Phillips, my daughter, Bethany's fiance, actually had the ring in his pocket. And we were thinking and hoping that that last three miles from the place we were attacked to the spot in Cameron where we wanted to finish up the day, he was actually going to propose to her.
He had wanted to do it on the side of the highway since they had walked so many miles together. And my son Josiah had walked, he was 12 at the time, had walked over 100 miles with us. And he just really wanted to walk with his dad one last week before the end of the year. That's what he had communicated to me.
It's interesting because Uh, we were thinking to go home after we had closed a long loop around Madison, I mean, around Yellowstone country and weren't real sure whether we should proceed north or south. And so it made sense to go home for the holidays. It was getting too cold. And we just pray over it and seek the Lord and come back and resume.
But when I found out that Carter and Josiah wanted to come out, I hated to disappoint them and rob them of that opportunity. And so I thought, you know what, let's head north into Montana. Really, it came down to the fact that there are more trees as we head north, and therefore more windbreak. And, uh, let's at least let these guys come out.
Let's don't rob them of that opportunity and we'll push through for another week. And so that was really hard for me to, um, deal with when this happened because we had been intent on going home. And the only reason we hadn't stopped was to accommodate Carter and Josiah. And so even sitting there in that police vehicle while they had me in there, I didn't know what was going to happen.
It was like, oh lord, you know. Why didn't we just, I'm so full of pride, God. Why didn't we just pack up and go home? Why didn't, why did I have to keep walking? You know, I was really questioning that because we, we were ready to go, but we didn't. I couldn't rob my 12 year old son of an opportunity to ride cross country with his Uncle Carter and to come out and walk a few days, and I knew it was important for Carter.
To, uh, propose to her on the side of the highway. So, I mean, you know, that's how we ended up there that day. Um, and, uh, you know, it is what it is. I mean, we serve a sovereign God. We, we serve a God that governs all. And, uh, His hand of Providence had us in that place at that time. And we trust Him. And, uh, we believe He's going to deliver us.
We believe there is great and sinister evil in that county. I believe that evil doesn't, isn't limited to that county. I believe it goes all the way up to the Office of the Attorney General. And that has proven itself in the way that it's been handled. And Dan, I'm just going to tell you that we're people of simple means.
We can't afford high profile attorneys. But we are going to fight this to the gates of hell. There is absolutely nothing that they can threaten us with. Nothing that they can take from us, nothing that they can say that will make us ever acknowledge any type of guilt. We acted righteously, and righteousness should never, ever, ever be apologized for.
We acted with restraint, and we escaped that domestic terrorist and his goons without any injury. And for that, I give thanks and praise to God. Some very bad things could have happened to my son, Josiah. He was taken and put in CPS custody. Fortunately, the young lady who was in charge of receiving him, she obviously knew something wasn't on the up and up.
And so she very righteously treated him with kid gloves, made sure that he was put in a safe place, uh, with a, with a, with a, with a very kind elderly woman. And when my wife showed up in Montana a few days later to retrieve him, she had to fly out from North Carolina. There was no, there was no barrier to her having to pick, her picking him up.
It was very easy, and he was well taken care of. Now based on what I've heard about CPS in Montana, and based on, you know, the things that we see, I had the opportunity to go in Helena last week and to view that movie that has come out about sex trafficking of children. Um, the sound of freedom. And all I could do is I sat there and watch that.
It's just bow my head and thank God for watching over my son, Josiah, that day. My son, Josiah, could have very easily ended up trafficked. And we know that stuff goes on. And so I just praise God for that. My daughter was transported alone by the sheriff elect of that county all the way over to Gallatin County, a 90 mile ride.
I don't know why he chose to transport her alone. It definitely violates their policies. There have been allegations against that department over the years for sexual assault by officers. So I don't know anything about this officer personally, but my daughter was in a vulnerable position that evening based upon the history of that department.
So God watched over us and, uh, this could have been so much worse, but, um, we did nothing wrong that day. And I'm glad Dan, I am so glad. And I wasn't forced to discharge my weapon. Uh, I've never want to have to hurt somebody. I've had knives pulled on me before as I served the Lord. I've had guns pulled on me.
I even had a man pulled a gun on me walking down the street in Kentucky. I've carried a gun lawfully for many years. I've been through gun trade, a gun training course in North Carolina. I've carried a concealed carry permit for years. Uh, I've never had to pull a weapon on somebody. And I, I, like I said, I've been in situations, sharing the gospel, where a knife has been pulled on me.
I had a man pull a pair of scissors out of a bag and put them up against my neck while I was preaching. In every one of those scenarios, I was armed. And never did I feel the need to even present a weapon. But this was different. This was very different. There was a threat. There was a very angry man who had expressed that he hated us and didn't want us in his county.
And so I took that threat seriously. And we did what we had to do to stop it, and nobody got hurt. Right, right. Well, he's very fortunate. Jesse, I want people to hear how they arrested you, they arrested basically all the adults, they took your son away. Uh, you were hauled away, handcuffed. Talk a little bit about that whole arrest scenario and then how you finally, uh, got out and, uh, were able to continue.
Well, Dan, you know, I've served the Lord. I've been blessed to serve Him on the foreign mission field in many countries. I've had many dealings, interactions with foreign law enforcement. Some of them in communist countries, some of them with reputations for being notably corrupt. I've never been treated like that.
What I saw that day on the side of that highway out of those deputies. Was East Germany style stuff. It was the kind of stuff that I used to read about that Christians would experience behind the Iron Curtain. And that is not an exaggeration. Those video clips tell you everything you need to know. And so it was absolutely ridiculous.
Uh, it was obvious that they. wanted to teach us a lesson, and neither did those officers want us in their county. They, they, uh, we were the victims of a hate crime that they helped to perpetrate, and I believe that they should be held accountable. But it doesn't stop there. We were thrown in jail. An officer drew up four affidavits for probable cause.
He signed them, and he swore to them. That particular officer, there is no record of him ever being sworn into office in Madison County. So technically he was impersonating a police officer and he falsely had us arrested. These affidavits that were turned over to the Justice Court judge were an absolute joke.
He did not mention that we were claiming self defense, which is against the law in Montana. And then we were put in jail and we sat there for three or four days. I don't know what kind of system they run in Montana. But in North Carolina, if you're arrested, you see a magistrate or a bond judge usually within a few hours, and you can be bailed out that night.
I sat in a Montana jail for three or four days before I sat before a Justice Court judge. And when I suddenly appear before this judge, I'm watching a county attorney bald faced lie to a judge about our identities. He said that we were homeless vagabonds. This judge mocked us as Christians. I explained to him that I was not a person that was a flight risk.
I asked to be released on my own recognizance. I explained to him that I was a Christian missionary, that I was held accountable in our ministry by a board of directors and by the pastors and elders of my local church. And this judge said to me, Mr. Boyd, I've had Christians lie to me before. So I don't know if you're lying or not.
I don't know if you're fibbing or not. So here we have a judge making a statement against Christians in Madison County. And then he asked the prosecutor what he should do. And this prosecutor recommended that we each be given maximum bonds and that we be forced to wear and pay for ankle monitors. That judge said, I agree, this is a crime of violence, and then he slapped us with those ridiculous bonds and with the ankle monitors that we ended up wearing for almost two months before the district judge allowed us to remove them.
So, not only were we targeted, but because of our Christian faith and the nature of our ministry, there's no doubt in my mind they tried to throw the book at us with no evidence. With no evidence whatsoever. I mean, you saw the guy at MIT. to attacking us in those video clips. Those cops were aware of that.
They were aware of that and instead they chose to become involved. This is a hate crime, Dan. This is a hate crime against Christians from out of state in the state of Montana and the people of Montana, liberal and conservative, ought to be outraged about it. They ought to. If these type of goons Sheriff's Department and they're involved in the judiciary, then this is a threat, not just to Christians or conservatives, it's a threat to liberals too.
No, to anyone, absolutely. Justice does not mean just us. It means everybody. And, uh, that, that's what's wrong with this whole scenario. Uh, Jesse, uh, when You were in, uh, in jail. You were being held in jail. You were forced to, uh, put up a bond. You were forced to wear these ankle monitors. Uh, how did, how did that all evolve?
And then you've told me that the, uh, AG's office, uh, has planned on pushing this all the way through. Talk a little bit about that. Well, we were kind of astounded. Uh, we, it was very difficult for us to come up with that bond money. There were local Montanans who didn't know us from Adam, who found out about this.
And while we were in jail, there were some pleas made for help by our loved ones, and they stepped in to help orchestrate all of that. Uh, we, we had to scrape together the, uh, 20, 000 to pay a bondsman. And then the ankle monitors, I ended up paying about five or six grand. Keep those on. We didn't even know the identity of our attacker, Dan.
I didn't know him, who he was or even know his name until we appeared in court and his name was used. And I saw his name on some court paperwork. So it blew my mind when a district A county attorney stood there before a dis, uh, a justice court judge and lied to that judge. He told that judge that we had had pastors contact and threaten the quote unquote victim.
Now Dan, I didn't even know who the victim was. How could I have had anybody call him and threaten him? That man lied before a judge. And so these, these individuals conspired against us not long after we got out of jail and got back to North Carolina. The case was actually handed over to the State Attorney General's office.
Now, this is not common. Uh, I don't know why a simple case like this would end up, uh, they'd end up asking for the AG's help, but his office got involved. And, uh, as soon as his assistant AG got involved, they upped Eric's charge from a misdemeanor to a felony. They have tried every dirty trick in the book in terms of making, filing motions with the court.
They have asked the district judge to keep us from being allowed to mention the name of Jesus or God or our missionary work in court. They don't want anything about our attacker's character or his past history allowed in court. I mean, it is simply unbelievable. As I said, this is Stasi, East German stuff.
And it's really disgusting when you consider that the AG of the state of Montana is, uh, claims to be a Christian. And his office is overseeing this, he has the power to step in and to stop it, and he has refused to do it. In fact, he himself has perpetrated, uh, details about this story in conversations with people that are false.
And it just blows my mind, Dan. I saw the AG Austin Knudsen on a, on a radio program, or I listened to him on a radio program last week. And he was talking about the gun raid that took place there in Great Falls with the ATF and the FBI. And as he was introduced to the show, these are the words that came out of his mouth.
These are the exact words out of the mouth of Attorney General Knutson. I'm a gun guy. I don't give lip service to the Second Amendment. If it goes bang, I'm into it. Dan, I'm just appalled at the open and vile hypocrisy of that statement. Here we are, Christians, peacefully walking a highway. We are approached, we are threatened, we are attacked, and under the Second Amendment, we are carrying a firearm for our protection and we're forced to present it in the way that Montana law gives us the right to do so.
And yet this man who claims not to give lip service to the Second Amendment, instead of affirming our Second Amendment rights, he is prosecuting us. So he is a vile hypocrite, Dan. And if he's a member of a local church as a Christian, really biblically the thing that should be done is he should be confronted.
After the matter of Matthew 18, and if he refuses to repent, he should be brought before his church. But you and I both know that'll never happen. Well, I'm, I'm just, uh, very surprised because I do know Austin Knudson and, uh, for the most part, I, everything that I've known about him was that he was a pretty straight shooter.
Now, did the, with all this body cam footage, there's so much proof there. Has, uh, what have they done to try to, uh, I guess try to negate all that proof? Body cam footage. You cannot make this stuff up and the words coming out of their mouth and the things that they're talking about, it's pretty obvious what happened and how could they even pursue this with all that body cam footage?
Now you said something else. You said there's literally hours of body cam footage out there. Uh, there, all the body cams were going when the, when they first approached, right? And then they shut them off? How did that work? Well, there were, you know, like I said, there's a lot of whistleblower footage out there.
I just, someone sent me video of me one day sitting back home, uh, in North Carolina. Hey, have you seen this? And there, I'm seeing video of me being arrested online. I don't know where that came from. I know there's an hour long video that was put together by someone out there. Must have, that, that must have involved a lot of work.
Now the authorities involved, uh, you know, you ask what are they doing to refute this is nothing. They've been silent. In fact, the few times that the Montana, I mean the Madison County Sheriff's Department has been contacted about this story, they've refused comment. The attacker has said, uh, to, to, to those trying to get information for a new story, he said, my lawyers have advised me not to speak.
I mean, so. There's, there's nothing but silence. They have sealed, this body cam footage has been sealed by the court, so they don't want it out there. It took the longest time for the, uh, the, the prosecutors to even turn over the 911 calls to our attorneys. So they're trying to cover it up, Dan. They're trying to cover it up just like they do at the national level.
Nothing to see here, nothing to see here, and they're hoping it's going to go away. But we're not going away, Dan. We will not go away until justice. is done in this matter. These men should not wear a badge, and the people of Montana need to know that their Attorney General is not a Second Amendment guy.
He is not. His actions in our situation speak otherwise. He ought to be ashamed of himself. I never thought that the first tyranny we would face as Christians in this country would come from Republican conservatives, not liberal Democrats. Republicans who fancy themselves conservatives. That's been our experience with Montana and Montana officials and elected officials.
It's not that way in North Carolina, but these are strange times we live in. Everything's upside down. Well, and I can tell you, there are Probably not conservatives. I hate to say it, but the Republican party, and I've been involved at the very, uh, upper levels of the Republican party in Montana and to a certain extent nationwide for a long time.
And I can tell you the Republican party has sold its soul. Yes, it really has. And, uh, the Establishment Republican Party has nothing to do with constitutionalism or conservatism. The Establishment Republican Party is Democrat Party lite, and they all follow the same progressive trail right down to the trough.
So there you go. Well, uh, Jesse, I want to wish you and your family the very best. You've got another court hearing coming up fairly shortly in this fall, isn't it? Well, I believe that, uh, the 29th of July is a deadline for the submission of motions to the court. And then in August, the judge will rule on these things.
Uh, supposedly a trial date has been set for November the 12th. Uh, we're going to fight this to the end, Dan. No pleas, no deals to the end. When a man does what is right, he should never apologize for it. And if he does, he's going to have to answer to the Lord. That's exactly right. Well, Jesse, thank you. Uh, stay in touch with me because I want to make sure that I support this effort because I agree with you.
This is way beyond. Just right and wrong. This is an attack on Christians, and it really is. But thank you again for being our guest, and, uh, please, viewers, join us again next Tuesday for Connecting the Dots.
